Just two weeks before Netflix drops Cowboy Bebop, a live-action adaptation of a beloved ‘90s anime, the streaming giant has announced another: Yu Yu Hakusho, the acclaimed manga by Yoshihiro Togashi, which was adapted into an acclaimed anime series by Studio Pierrot.
The news, tweeted out by Netflix, is scant on details but the company says the series will arrive in December 2023.
In a medium full of great premises, Yu Yu Hakusho’s is an all-timer: Yusuke Urameshi is a teen punk who is hit by a car and killed when he tries to save a child caught in its path. Since this was an uncharacteristically selfless act, the denizens of the afterlife are at a loss with what to do with him, since he would’ve been hell-bound were it not for his sudden altruism. After passing a test, he’s offered the chance to return to his body, and becomes an underworld detective, investigating supernatural events in the land of the living.
The announcement is one of the highlights from Netflix’s Japan Festival 2021, in which the streamer unveiled a massive slate of anime and anime-inspired projects currently in production. Like with Yu Yu Hakusho, details are scarce on most of them, but the slate is also full of new seasons for recent hits (like the Ultraman reboot) and old favorites. (Including Tiger and Bunny 2, new Detective Conan adventures, and Aggretsuko season 4.)
Here’s hoping that Yu Yu Hakusho’s absolute bop of a theme song is incorporated somehow.
Source: https://www.polygon.com/entertainment/22772532/yu-yu-hakusho-netflix-live-action
